Hyannis to Sept Isles, Quebec, Canada
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24 June 2007



Pilot Section

General
 
Wow, what a day!! The basic plan was to pick up Ed Carlson, a highly experienced Trans-Atlantic pilot who is flying with me to Bournemouth, at his home base at Pawtucket North Central State Airfield in Massachusets, fly to Portland, Maine where we would clear out of USA and then finish the day flying up to Quebec Jean Lesage Airport to clear into Canada. Already a long day as planned, but as it turned out we went a step further and continued to Sept Isles, half way down the St Lawrance on the way to Goose Bay.
 
Weather over North East Canada and the West side of the North Atlantic had been a concern for the last few days. The weather systems did not look favourable and it did not look as though a good weather slot was likely to open up on Monday and Tuesday. I had been having exchanges of e-mail with Ed about it and pouring over the weather web sites, but some changes to plan were looking inevitable.


Despite the weather concerns further down the route, weather does not come any better than in Hyannis on Sunday morning! I took off into clear blue skies and flew VFR the short 20 minute flight to North Central State airfield, landing at 0900 as arranged with Ed, who sure enough was there to meet me as I shut down.
 
Ed is an extraordinary character as well as a veteran of more than 280 crossings of the North Atlantic in small aircraft. He has made his living from this, giving courses ( www.flythepond.com ), accompanying owners such as myself, and delivering aircraft himself.
 
At North Central State Ed also introduced me to Andre Blech who would be flying the route with us in his V Tail Bonanza N813CH. Andre had arrived at North Central State the previous day having flown his aircraft across the USA from his home in California. A very pleasant Californian, Andre was on his way to Germany where he would meet his family for a few weeks holiday, and then return back the same way in about six weeks time.
Andre departed North Central State ahead of Ed and myself, heading for Portland. Because N238JG is new, and being permanently exported from the USA I had to visit customs and depart through a designated international airport. Whilst Andre a US citizen returning later with his aircraft, did not.
 
I had called Portland customs in advance and faxed them copies of all the necessary paperwork in advance. Based on my pretty miserable experiences of entry and exit procedures at US airports in recent years, (inefficiency and mindless beauracracy dressed up under the excuse of post 9-11 “Sicyuoooridee”), I had been expecting some difficulty with this process, but I could not have been more wide of the mark. The sole customs officer on duty was expecting me and was extremely friendly and efficient. I gave him originals of the same documents I had faxed, which he checked, stamped my passport and then came out to check that the plate on the aircraft matched the numbers on the paperwork. Five minutes after shutting down N238JG at the customs building we were back in the aircraft and taxiing over to the FBO to meet Andre, re-fuel and prepare for departure to Quebec.
 
This was probably the busiest FBO I had visited in USA with at least 10 corporate jets visiting at the same time as us, and countless smaller GA aircraft like ourselves and Andre. I continue to be amazed at the facilities available for General Aviation in the USA, their efficiency and low cost. We were on the ground at Portland for barely 45 minutes including the customs clearance and re-fuelling, filing our flight plan and also the required “Canpass” advance clearance for the aircraft and ourselves into Canada, and checking the weather before we were taxiing back out for take-off bound for Canada.
 
As we headed North across Maine and New Hampshire, the forecast thunderstorm activity did not appear to be materialising. There was very little vertical cloud build-up and we saw some classic lenticular cloud formations in the distance which I later kicked myself for not photographing! Indications seemed to be that the weather was improving on the forecast.
 
One of the additional pieces of equipment fitted by Lancaster avionics in N238JG was the Satellite phone. I was keen to test it and make sure I fully understood how to operate it before we were too far into the trip. As we settled into the 2 hour leg to Quebec this seemed like an ideal opportunity. I realised with the time zone difference it was late afternoon in UK. Lily, Hal and Jasmine should just have arrived at Heathrow on Singapore airlines, have met my brother Graham and be on their way down to our cottage in New Forest – worth a try!! I called Lily’s mobile number and sure enough she answered. There I was flying over Berlin New Hampshire at 11,000 feet talking clear as a bell on the telephone to my wife driving in a car down the M3 in England!!
 
You know you are approaching Canadian airspace when the radio traffic turns to French! Although they are quite happy to handle traffic in English, there are sometimes different frequencies for French and English. I found this out the hard way as I tuned the nominated ATIS frequency to get the arival information for Quebec airport to find I was listening to a recording in French. I found a second frequency, and sure enough that one was in English – lesson learned!
 
Once on the ground in Quebec we checked in with Canpass who gave Andre and myself seperate scoldings for being 20 minutes later arriving than we had advised them from Portland, and told me that because I was British I had to go and get my passport stamped at the main terminal building. I duly did this, sharing a taxi with two Americans who had flown their Rockwell Commander up from Arizona, but were handing it over to a ferry pilot to fly it across the Atlantic, where they would pick it up and fly around Europe. One of the most interesting aspects of this trip is becoming the people that I have met along the way, although in this case I couldn’t understand why they didn’t fly the aircraft across themselves – their aircraft was more than capable of making the trip.
 
Whilst I was getting my passport stamped Ed and Andre were checking the weather and overseeing re-fuelling of the aircraft.When I got back we discussed the plan. Current weather was better than forecast, but the forecast for tomorrow was still marginal for crossing to Greenland. This afternoon, weather at Goose Bay was forecast marginal, but weather to Sept Isles was good. Also, we had made good time so far. It was barely 1400, so we decided to use the good weather and press on – we would re-fuel at Sept Isles to give us safety margin if we were unable to land at Goose.
 
Again Andre departed first from Quebec. The performance of the Bonanza and the Cirrus are similar, but we expected to slowly overtake him, and Air Traffic control obviously thought the same. We had filed for 11,000 feet, but ATC asked us if we could accept 13,000 – an altitude at which we required oxygen in our unpressurised cockpit. Apart from a very brief test on my flight over from Duluth, this was another “first” for one N238JG’s systems. I dug the oxygen kit out from the pile of equipment on the back seat assembled two sets for Ed and myself, only to find we were one hose short – the missing one being unaccessible in the luggage compartment. I duly used the oxygen, and Ed went without. We located the missing hose after landing at Sept Isles for us on later legs.
 
We landed at Sept Isles at 1835 and parked at Trans-Sol Aviation. However, it was firmly closed and no fuel was available until the morning – so the decision was made for us that we would not be carrying on to Goose today! The place was absolutely deserted, and furthermore, we were locked inside the airfield! By calling the tower on the radio we were able to call for a taxi to take us into town, but had to scale the 8 foot high barbed wire fence to get out. Andre and I managed to do it with only minor injury, and with a bit of ingenuity found a ladder to enable Ed to Scale the fence too. 

 
Pilot Section
 
Here are the details of today’s flight for other pilots and people interested in the details:
 
Departure Airport:        Hyannis (KHYA)
Departue & Handling: Air Cape Cod, opens 0800 and I departed before it opened. Departure was VFR to Pawtucket North Central (KSFZ). Clearance out of US for myself and the new aircraft at Protland was straightforward. I had contacted Customs at Portland a few days in advance, and forwarded them copies of the SED, Commercial Invoice, Packing List for the aircraft by fax (contact numbers below). When I showed up with the original documents and my passport the process was very straightforward and efficient. The part which caught me out today was clearance into Canada. You need to call “Canpass” on 1-888-CANPASS to file your details prior to departure from USA, and again on arrival in Canada to report your arrival and intentions.Not difficult, but must be done to avoid problems with immigration clearance.
Avgas Price:                North Central State:       No Fuel taken
Portland:                       (Lost Receipt, but about US$4.70 / Gal)
Quebec:                        Canadian $1.70 / Litre paid by Amex.
Sept Isles:                    
Detailed Route:            KHYA VFR Direct to KSFZ
KSFZ – WOONS – MHT – ENE – Visual Apprch Rwy 29 at KPWM
KPWM – WYLIE – BML – YSC – YQB – GPS Apprch Rwy 30 CYQB
CYQB – GADAL – ML – YBC – GPS Apprh Rwy 31 at CYZV
En Route Altitude:        KHYA to KSFZ              2,000ft
KSFZ to KPWM             9,000ft
KPWM to CYQB            11,000ft
CYQB to CYZV              13,000ft (11,000ft filed)
Flight Time:                 KHYA to KSFZ              20 Minutes
KSFZ to KPWM             1 Hour 40 Minutes
KPWM to CYQB            2 Hour 15 Minutes
CYQB to CYZV              1 Hour 50 Minutes
Arrival Airport:             Sept Isles (CYZV)
Arrival & Handling:     
Portland:          Northeast Air
                        1011 Westbrook Street.Portland ME 04102
                        Tel:       207-774-6318
                        Fax:      207-874-4714
                        Customs & Border Service
                                    Tel:       207-771-3633
Fax:      207-771-3627
Quebec:           Petro Air Service
                        Aeroport du Quebec
                        Tel:       418-877-877-4419
                        Unicom VHF:     122.475
Sept Isles:        Trans-Sol Aviation Service Ltee
CP 2008, Sept Isles, QC Canada G4R 4L9
Tel:       418-968-3626
Fax:      418-968-3626
Radio Carillon Taxi Inc:   1-888-829-4787 



Kids Section

Did you Know : We flew down the Saint lawrence Seaway from Quebec to Sept Iisles, close to where it joins the Altantic Ocean.
 
Fun Fact: The Saint lawrence Seaway, which we flew alongside today from Quebec to Sept Isles provides a navigation system all the way 2,038 Nautical Miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Duluth Minnesota. Duluth is where N238JG was made at Cirrrus Design, and where we had started our journey 6 weeks ago. It was opened in 1959 and goes through 14 Lock Systems to raise and lower ships up to the level of the inland Great Lakes and avoid the shallow fast flowing rivers – including the Niagara Falls!
 
Quiz:  
Answer to yesterday’s Quiz: The Kennedy Family has been active and probably the most influential family in US politics since the middle of the 20th Century. John F Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States in the early 1960s, and was assasinated in Dallas in 1963. His brother Robert Kennedy was a Presidential candidate, but was also assasinated in Los Angeles in 1968. A third brother, Senetor Edward Kennedy remains a US Senator today.
Today’s Quiz Question: Today we had to use oxygen on route from Quebec to Sept Isles. Why do pilots need to use oxygen at high altitudes?
 (Answers on the next Daily Diary!)